Bekah turns 6!!

I cannot believe that my baby Bekah is six years old! Seriously, she was just born about 18 months ago. I swear. She is such an amazing little girl. She is fun and crazy and kind and smart. There is just no one like our Bekah girl. We are so glad she is in our family!

For her birthday she wanted to take all the kids to eat at Carl's Jr.

The birthday girl (not sure why she doesn't seem happy, haha)

Emma and Papa are not sure of each other

Zachy boy

The older kids sort of brought their electronics to use while the younger guys played on the playset

Bekah's haul!

We love our girl!!!

Trick or Treat!

After a month of fun activities, Halloween finally arrived! The Richards and the Jake Burton family all came to our neighborhood to trick or treat together. Ammon was the official candy giver-outer at home. Addie and Hannah had a friend over for a little Halloween "party."

Karl, Caleb and Josh as well as Emma, Lizzie and Brielle all took off without parents (in two different groups). That left me, Joe, Emily, Randon, Jake and Katie (6 adults) with the little guys. We had Zachy and Ellie (the babies!), Jakey, Ella, and Bekah. Jakey was nervous at first but Bekah and Ella soon taught him the ropes. By the end, he was running up to the houses like the big girls! The adults enjoyed chatting as we strolled through the neighborhood. When we were on the exact opposite end of the neighborhood from our house, Bekah and Ella decided they needed to go potty. Haha. A nice man in our ward was kind enough to let them use his bathroom. It was quite an adventure for all of us!

I must have been having so much fun "living" the night that I didn't actually really document it at all. Oh well!

Zachy was NOT thrilled to be dressed in a costume. It was all very terrifying. He did great in his stroller, though, as we traversed the neighborhood. (note the hands on the ears)

Our gang! Hannah did not trick or treat (her first year home!), but still dressed up as a pirate. Lizzie was a banana, Emma a princess, Caleb was Darth Vader, Bekah was a princess as well, and Zach was an unhappy lion. :)

Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch

We have a tradition of ALWAYS going to the pumpkin patch for Halloween. Many times we went with the Nortons (we miss you!!). For whatever reason, we have never gone through the corn maze. This year we decided to do it! We met up with Nana and Grandpa and cool cousin Karl (he was staying with Nana and Grandpa while his family was in California) and had a great night. We did the hayride, the activities, the maze and then went back to our house and ate chili and corn bread and watched a Halloween movie. It was a fun night. :)

Just a disclaimer: After reaching the farm, we sort of all split up. Ammon was at cross country practice and wasn't there. Hannah and Lizzie took off (as they are wont to do these days) to explore everything on their own (who needs embarrassing parents and younger siblings??). They did take my phone with them, but only have a couple of odd photos. Nana and Grandpa and Karl left early for football practice. This means that almost all of my pics are of Emma, Caleb, and Bekah. It's nothing personal everyone else...:)

I love this pic!

And we're off...Bekah looks worried already. :)

Emma and Caleb often disagreed on which way we should go. Thankfully Joe was guiding us through quite well. It took us WAY longer than it took Nana, Grandpa, Karl, Hannah, and Lizzie!

My little farmers :)

Of course Lizzie, Karl, and Hannah chose a scarier picture :)

We bought a certain number of tokens for the kids to do rides or whatnot. The little guys LOVE the swings.

Cool dude

Sorry Hannah and Lizzie, but the pictures you took on my phone were kind of weird. Lots of strange pictures of Lizzie, haha.

And then there were like 20 pictures of Lizzie signing this waiver. She decided to ride the mechanical bull (of course no pictures of that!) and the girls thought it was hilarious that she had to sign a waiver first. They couldn't stop talking about it.

Picking out our pumpkins. We told the kids they had to be able to carry their own. Emma did a good job!

Bekah chose a nice one. She wanted white so she could paint it more easily. :)

On the hayride (the sun was in their eyes)

We need at least one shot of the baby boy (yes he was there!) being nervous. Notice the hands on the ears. :)

Bekah was worried she would never get out of the hay bale maze.

But she did! What a fun night. Thanks Nana and Grandpa and Karl for joining us!

Pumpkin carving!

The Richards came over and we all carved pumpkins just before Halloween. The kids are getting old enough that most of them can carve their own pumpkins without help. It's always more fun with our cousins! :)

The carving table

The painting table - for those that could not carve a pumpkin, we let them paint a masterpiece instead. :)

I love my little Picasso - Caleb

This was right up Brielle's alley!

Oh and Bekah's alley too! She LOVES everything to do with art.

Ella Bay with her pumpkin

No painting for Karl! He carved the biggest pumpkin of the night and did an awesome job of it too!

The big boys hanging out in the kitchen making caramel apples

This is how Zachy felt about having company over. Sigh...

Randon ate his very first caramel apple of all time! Crazy

The kids were very excited!

Emma the goofball :)

Hannah painted a minion pumpkin. She is so creative!

A few of our pumpkins lit up. We also had a VERY long line of painted pumpkins. :)

Hannah's Beehive Spotlight

We did tons of fun Harvest activities throughout the month of October. I love this time of year! To start out, Hannah had all of the Beehives in the ward over to our house for a Mutual activity. They do a thing where they spotlight one girl and then they have an activity at her house where she can share some of her talents (and work off a YW project as well!). Hannah decided to combine art and cooking - two of her loves. She taught the girls how to make fun Halloween type party foods. They made individual mummy pizzas, bone breadsticks, and lots of spooky treats. It was a great night!

Hannah is on the right (hiding behind her leader) teaching the girls. Notice that Lizzie is in YM now too! It is so fun. :)

 

Hannah did a really great job. :)

Mummy pizzas

Bone breadsticks

Lots of fun treats. :)

Family pictures

I decided that I was not going to buy school pics for the kids this year, but to just get them done by a great photographer and friend from the ward instead. They ended up being really fun and beautiful. I knew that it was going to be extremely difficult with Zach (considering he screams and cries if anyone talks to him), but didn't have great hopes for either a group shot or any of Zachy. They ended up pretty good, though. These are just the prints with the watermarks still in them, but I wanted to share anyway.

I couldn't believe she got a group shot with everyone looking forward and Zach not having a complete and utter meltdown. :)

Ammon - junior year

Hannah - 8th grade

Lizzie - 6th grade

Emma - 4th grade

Caleb - 2nd grade

Bekah - kindergarten

I cropped Ammon out to see if I could get one with just Zach. Not sure what I think...

My seven kiddos!